On Saturday April 18, 2009 my son and I went to the ALMS race at the Long Beach Grand Prix. It was a great day! We sat right at the hairpin turn just before the long straight. I put together a video of footage I shot from our seats. It was a great day with my racing buddy.

The sounds abd speed of these cars made really impressed me. These guys raced their guts out for 100 minutes. The coolest thing was that every time they hit the hairpin they were in a different running order. That is kind of what I try to capture in the video - the pure variety of the race. And thus, the music as well. Let me know if you think I succeeded in captuirng that aspect of the race.

The video was actually shot with my Nikon D90 DSLR still camera. It has the ability to shoot HD video as well. It's the first time I have ever used the D90 as a video camera. It came out very nicely.

Be sure to check out the HD version of this video on my site - downforcemedia.com/cars.

Here is the link: "The Hairpin" - ALMS at Long Beach 2009

Enjoy and TURN IT UP!!!

Here is a version with music.

"The Hairpin" - AMLS at Long Beach 2009 on Vimeo

For you hard core race fans who love to hear the engines roar, here is a version with no music.

http://vimeo.com/4236405

 

I saw part of the race on tv today and my first reaction was "damn, so slow." Been watching too much f1 lately...

Oh and awesome vid!

 

Nice video Dana!

 

No doubt F1 will spoil you! I like the GT2 cars because they are not that far from what you can approximate on the street.

 

Let's let the daytime crowd get a look at this.

 

Wow. Not many race fans on TS these days. Can't keep this on the front page of the New Posts.

It keeps getting pushed down by threads about Obama and Tuuner's bowel movements.

 

Love the vid man looks like a great time...

 

Slow down Dana, I had a busy morning and am only now getting around to my daily time wasting exercise. Must say, good work on the vid. There was some seriously desireable machinary in those shots. On TV yesterday, it was impressive to see that coming out of the hairpin the P1/2 cars really didn't have that much over even the GT2 cars until the really got up to speed.

By the way, keep the racing action coming. That's the main reason I venture to this site. I unwantingly get enough B.S. from CNBC, CNN, and FOX News during my daily activities.

 

Great video. This is the first LBGP I have missed in almost 10 years. I really think adding ALMS to the race weekend added a new, exciting element to the race and exposed a type of racing normally only seen by the "hard core race fan" to more of the general public.

Although not as fast as F1 cars, the Champ cars races at Long Beach are crazy, scary fast and REALLY loud. The top ALMS cars run in the 1:14 - 1:15 range, while the Champ cars lap in the 1:05 - 1:06 range. The speed difference between the two is about the same as the gap between the LMP1 cars and the GT1 Corvettes.

Even so, I much prefer ALMS over Champ/Indy car racing or NASCAR for that matter. Indy cars all look the same, sound the same, and all are about as fast as each other. ALMS offers different looks, sounds, speeds and strengths/weaknesses of each car. Maybe that is why I enjoy vintage racing so much......

Thank you again for posting the vids Dana.

 

Finally some men in the forum! I was beginning to think we had lost EVERYONE to "The Nice Thread". Glad to see someone appreciates what TS should really be about - cars and speed!

I have a video of the Indy car qualifying I am putting together. Nice content of Danica Patrick doing a header into the wall and screwing up everyone else's session!